Cure V

[Neisan_Quetz]

Meh, they did at least buff Vorpal at the minimum... but if they're serious about giving Rdm better melee prowess then exclusive WS access should be a given. Of course, not a priority imo.

[Hyrist]

Different subject, different post.

Meh, they did at least buff Vorpal at the minimum... but if they're serious about giving Rdm better melee prowess then exclusive WS access should be a given. Of course, not a priority imo.

Right now my mindset is "while you're there..." as they are revising Weapon Skills. With Magian Weapons, heck, even as early as the first Relics, they've always acknowledge that RDM's primary 'weapon' is Sword (Sword and Dagger pre Mythics.) PLD and RDM were essentially it for sword before BLU unless you wanted to count Ridill use before the 2H update. And now all 3 of them seem rather lacking before CDC (Vorpal Blade still falls behind Rampage, let alone Evisceration, Dancing Edge, Hexa Strike, etc.)

While they are working on adjustments I hope they can put sword itself into good standing among other weapons, and RDM should be included in that IMO, priority or no. It saves the melee-enthusiasts any conflict in asking for a seperate update just to pull RDM's own WSes back to par (partly by giving them the EX ones), when it can be done now while they're re-balancing the entire set. Do it while it's convenient to.

Honestly, giving Red Mage respectable melee damage isn't going to change its HNM role, which I think is what most hardcore endgame players are worried most about. No one bats an eye at a RDM meleeing fodder in an Abyssea alliance, or small-time events, and weaker NMs are usually done amongst friends or solo anyways. And I've got no issues putting my sword aside when it's time to pop a boss mob.

Now if you were to ask me to make a decision between RDM's enhancing/enfeebling game and improving their melee, I'd lean towards enhancing/enfeebling. But I don't believe such a decision has to be made, nor do I think that they're actually exclusive of each other, though, SE seems to have made it that way with Temper this time around.

But I've always viewed RDM as a control class, something that pro-actively molds the situation to the preference of the players. I've always believed Melee had a place in that, albeit limited to lesser targets. (Melee Fodder, Magic Bosses) But like my opinion on healing, it should take a lesser role to our core concept, which is enfeebling/enhancing. (That does not mean I believe RDM should be a cycle-bot, however. There is still some hard work that needs to be done in regards to how our buffs assist in a group setting, IMO.)